Silver Sales Soaring at Mints as Silver Prices Remain Flat
Silver prices have been relatively flat over the past few months. In the long run, the gray precious metal could soar. There seems to be a silver rush in the making and those against it are getting nervous.
If you want to know how silver demand looks, pay attention to sales at mints around the world. In the last two months, something interesting has happened; mints’ silver sales have skyrocketed, as prices have been relatively flat.
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Consider the U.S. Mint. In September, the mint sold 320,000 ounces of silver in American Eagle coins. October is not even finished yet, but the mint has already sold 750,000 ounces of silver in similar coins. If you do simple math, this represents an increase of over 134%. It will not be shocking if silver sales figures hit one-million ounces for October at the U.S. Mint. (Source: “Bullion Sales,” U.S. Mint, last accessed October 23, 2017.)
At the Perth Mint, Australia’s biggest mint, silver sales in September amounted to 697,849 ounces. This figure was 78% higher from August. Year-to-date, the Perth Mint has sold 7.21-million ounces of silver. (Source: “Perth Mint Bullion Sales Rebound in September,” CoinNews.net, October 20, 2017.)
Silver Bears Getting Nervous
While mint sales are showing there’s a sort of silver rush in the making, those who are betting against silver prices (bears) seem to be getting nervous. This is not talked much in the mainstream, but it could have very positive impacts on silver prices.
To see this, you have to look at the Commitments of Traders (COT) report released by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released every week. This report gives a general idea of who’s doing what.
One of the things stated in this report is how the “managed money” is behaving. Essentially, these are institutional investors. They have huge buying power and the ability to move the markets.
Since the beginning of the year, managed money has been reducing their “short positions.” That’s their bets against silver prices.
Consider this: in the first week of January, they were short 19,343 futures contracts. Mind you, one contract is 5,000 ounces. This means they were down 96.71-million ounces. (Source: “Commitments of Traders,” Commodity Futures Trading Commission, last accessed October 23, 2017.)
In the most recent report, this figure was 10,744, or 53.72-million ounces. This represents a decline of 8,599 futures contracts, or over 44%, in a matter of 10 months.
If this doesn’t tell you that shorts are getting nervous, then what will?
Silver Prices Outlook: Why 2018 Could Be Big for Silver
Dear reader, silver prices are being ignored severely despite some major shifts happening in the market.
I ask: how long could this continue?
To me, it will not be shocking if 2018 turns out to be very big for silver prices. I say this because I believe that’s when investors will start paying attention to data and realize how the gray precious metal is undervalued.
Obviously, with time, we will know more. In the meantime, I can’t help but be bullish on silver prices ahead.
